Monday, September 14, 2009

Double Whammy!

It doesn't often happen that I can combine two of my favourite causes in one rant, but this one just fell into my lap.

I've been bitching about health care reform for quite a while, now, and about domestic violence even longer. SEIU.org published an interesting article on Friday. From the post:

But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that "domestic violence victim" is also a pre-existing condition.

Of all the cold, self-serving and revolting policies of health insurance companies, this has to take the cake. It is difficult enough for women to report incidents of domestic violence, without the report causing a risk to their health insurance! Good Old Boy network meets uber-capitalism, and they stroll, hand in hand, into the Good Life, leaving women, once again, in the dirt.

Back in the 70s, we fought for equality in the workplace. We are still fighting for that, and have been fighting the backlash as well. Whether intentional or not, the net result of this policy is that women who report domestic abuse to the authorities risk losing the one tiny bit of safety net that they might have. OK, OK...men, too; but the incidence of domestic violence against women is much greater than that against men.

Now, it has become a "pre-existing condition," like cancer or pregnancy. Are we going backwards?

Not many of you will remember the really Bad Old Days, when a married woman could not get a credit card or buy a car without her husband's permission, but I SWEAR to you that's the way it was.

As recently as 15 years ago, the county sheriff's department made excuses to avoid accompanying me on a court ordered expedition to retrieve my furniture and personal items from Jude Allan Duzan, against whom I had a protective order. That particular brand of Good Old Boy tends to side with the man in a domestic dispute.

So now we have the supporters of domestic abuse joining forces with Big Insurance to chip away at the empowerment of women. Intentional (I really don't think it is) or not, the end result is the same. The walls are closing in, and the fences are going up.